


my heart will go on

by serpentblossom



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017), Titanic (1997)
Genre: Abuse, ChONI AU, Character Death, Cheryl Blossom Needs a Hug, Domestic Violence, Endgame Cheryl Blossom/Toni Topaz, Eventual Smut, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Minor Character Death, Slow Burn, Suicidal Thoughts, Titanic AU, Titanic References, compulsory heteroseuxality, titanic plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-17 02:09:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16965738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serpentblossom/pseuds/serpentblossom
Summary: Cheryl Blossom is a young and beautiful socialite engaged to a wealthy Englishman, Nick St. Clair and Toni Topaz is a homeless and generally unsuccessful, yet talented, artist. What will happen when their paths cross on the greatest passenger liner that ever existed?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is an introduction to the characters and a tone setter for myself and all of you as to what kinda feel this fic is gonna have. i hope you enjoy!  
> fair warning, this is my first fic in a long time so it may take me a few chapters to get back into the swing of it.

April 10th 1912

The crowds at the Southampton docks had been building since the early hours of the morning, most people curious spectators of the awe-inspiring ship about to make its long-winded journey across the North Atlantic Ocean. Those that were lucky, or incredibly wealthy, would be fortunate enough to make history by making their way from a small town in England to New York aboard the cruise liner.  
—  
Out of a red Coupe de Ville, stepped a young Cheryl Blossom, her door being propped open by her seemingly gentleman husband-to-be; Nick St. Clair. The pair would be joined by her mother Penelope, on the ship and they would reside in the astounding first class landing onboard.  
Cheryl was born in a small town in America into exceptional wealth, but the unruly murder of her brother, followed by the immediate conviction, then suicide of her father, meant that the family business sunk under, leaving her and her mother in extensive amounts of debt. Her wealth fuelled mother, Penelope saw opportunity for money in her beautiful, auburn haired daughter and soon travelled with her to England where she all but sold her daughter to her late-husband’s business associates, the St. Clairs. Within 6 months the eldest of the St. Clair children, Nick, and Cheryl were engaged to be married and Penelope had the wealth she so strongly desired all but a stones throw away, she just needed them to trade their vows to one another which they were scheduled to do in New York on April the 20th. 

“I don’t see what all the fuss is about, it doesn’t look any bigger than the Mauritania.” The ecstasy and excitement around her clearly wasn’t infectious; as Cheryl Blossom was far from impressed by the glorified boat which she looked up upon. She knew what was going to happen once they got off the both at the other side, she dreaded it. But she kept quiet, she always kept quiet. 

“You can be blasé about some things, Cheryl, but not the Titanic, it’s over 100 feet longer than the Mauritania and much more luxurious.” Her darling fiancé quickly interjected, Cheryl had to hold herself back from rolling her eyes, it was going to be a long journey. “It is unsinkable too, Cheryl! Not even god himself could sink this ship.”

A very, very, long journey. 

—  
Less than 200 metres away in a dock side cafe, a certain Toni Topaz was enthralled in a game of poker with her best and only friends; Sweet Pea and Fangs. They were childhood classmates, bound by a passion for art and a commonality of having very little to call their own.

The stakes were particularly high and three tickets on board the third class of the Titanic were put on the line by their competitors. Toni put every single penny she had to her name in the pile of potential winnings, her team mates shot a bewildered and disconcerting glare at their best friend at the motion; “When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose. Right boys?” 

Somebody’s life was about to change and everyone knew it, Toni was quietly confident in her hand and even as Sweet Pea and Fangs folded, she didn’t let her facade slip.  
Her opponent placed their cards down on the table, it was a two pair, a good hand, a winning hand usually. Toni sighed, “I’m sorry boys” she said, she looked down at her feet and a look of genuine disheartenment swept across her face.  
“What the fuck Toni?” Sweet Pea stood up, he was ready to flip the table, he didn’t have enough to lose everything he had, Fangs quickly followed his friends motion, he was about to say something but before he could, Toni stepped up to the pair; “I’m sorry that you’re not gonna be seeing your Mom’s for a long time guys, we’re going back to America!”  
The trio quickly bundled into an ecstatic hug before swiping the table of the tickets and little amount of money they had betted on themselves, they stumbled quickly out of the door of the cafe towards the ship dreams which they would call home for the next few days.  
The three of them ran through the crowds of people and got to the third class entry door just in time to hop onto the boat.  
—  
Whilst Toni gaily settled into her third class bunk, riddled with rats and a foisting scent, ready for the journey of a lifetime; Cheryl unpacked into pristine and beautiful accommodation where anyone else would be more than grateful to spend a week of their life and she just wanted the journey to be over, or even better, not to start.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hi i know this chapter isn't particularly well written, its maybe a lil rushed because i'm eager to get all of the backstory and tone setting parts out of the way so we can actually get onto the meaty parts of the story we all wanna actually see...but on the plus side Cheryl and Toni actually meet in the next chapter can i get a hallelujah

It was only a mere three hours since the Titanic began its journey half way across the world and Cheryl was already exhausted with the inescapable close proximities that she was sharing with not only her mother and fiancé, but all of their arrogant friends and business associates as well.  
They all sat around a table in a first class dining hall preparing for the divine and unjustifiably expensive luncheon they were expecting to be waited to them at any moment. Cheryl placed a cigarette holder between her plump red lips and lit the smoke at end of it before taking an almost impossibly long drag; the business men and women around her were chattering about their assets and arguing about who was the most successful of them; this topic wasn’t of interest to Cheryl and she eventually zoned out from their incessant droning..only to be snapped out of her trance seconds later,  
“You know I don’t like that, Cheryl.” Her mother spoke, and the only Blossom daughter felt the hairs along the back of her neck stand on end at the very sound of her voice. It was true, her mother didn’t like her smoking cigarettes, but Penelope didn’t approve of anything her daughter did unless it brought HER fortune or wealth of some variety. The fact her Mother didn’t want her to smoke made Cheryl want to do it all the more and in a rebellious motion against Penelope’s comment, the red-head blew smoke from her mouth directly at the woman.  
“She knows.” Nick answered in response to the question that nobody actually asked. Cheryl’s fist clenched under the table as her darling fiancé swept the cigarette holder from between her lips and put out the light. The males around the table, and her mother, chuckled at the small insight of Nick’s controlling behaviour towards Cheryl that they had just witnessed which unbeknownst to them was a lot more severe behind closed doors. No one could see that she was struggling and even if they did see it, she doubted that they’d care, no one had cared truly for Cheryl since Jason died. “I need some air,” she muttered, barely audible, before she dismissed herself from the table and made her way to one of the many ship balconies. She needed time to process all the realisations she’d made about the truth of her life in the past 10 minutes. She needed someone to care about her, to save her from the life she was being forced to live and god knows she needed it fast.  
-  
Toni, Sweet Pea and Fangs were taking advantage of the once in a life time opportunity they had been handed, they were undoubtedly living their best life. The three of them had befriended a couple of the third class passengers, Reggie Mantle and Kevin Keller. The five of them were sitting on the lower deck of the ship, flicking through Toni’s art portfolio in awe whilst the fresh sea wind whistled through their hair. “Tiny, you’re so damn talented!” Sweet Pea complimented Toni as if it wasn’t the hundredth time he’d seen her art work and the thousandth time he’d expressed how impressive he found it. Toni glanced up at her friend, with all intentions of thanking him for his kind words but she was rendered speechless when she caught sight of a stunning redhead standing upon the first class deck.  
Toni had always been attracted to women as well as men and it wasn’t something she was ashamed of in herself, though outside of her tight knit friendship group she knew no one else could ever know. Homosexuality of any sort was frowned upon greatly and the repercussions for anyone who showed evidence of being in a physical or romantic relationship with a person of the same sex could be dire. Toni had slept with plenty of both women and men in her life, which was untraditional in itself as usually people waited until marriage to be physical with one another; but she had never ‘fallen in love’ per se; well not for more than one night.  
It was almost 30 seconds later and Toni only just realised she was still staring at the beautiful woman, she was snapped out of her reverie by Fangs, waving his hand in front of her face. She hadn’t been subtle as even her new acquaintances had realised that in a single sight Toni had fallen head over heels in love with the beauty that was Cheryl Blossom.  
“Forget it, the likes of us will never get next to the likes of them.” Kevin said, his voice was soft and he had a peculiar accent which was familiar to Toni, she suspected that like her he was returning home to America after living overseas for a long time. Toni knew that was the hard truth of the situation and even if Toni wasn’t a female; a first class shipmate would never be seen holding hands with a third classer who could never have even afforded their own ticket on the boat.  
Before giving up on all hope, Toni looked up again towards Cheryl, she’d never seen anyone so beautiful in her life and she had to get one last glimpse before she let it be a distant memory. As T looked up, Cheryl glanced back down at her; and though it was likely a mistake on the Blossom’s behalf, it sent a jolt right through the artist’s stomach. Toni swore she felt the earth stand still when their eyes met, she could already tell from this distance that Cheryl knew pain, that she was deeper than those pretentious prats that she was inevitably spending her time with on the ship. It felt like they held eye contact for an eternity, but realistically it was only a few seconds before Nick St. Clair came out to collect his fiancee.  
Toni watched the couple as they had what looked like a disagreement of some kind, before an uninterested Cheryl walked away from the man she was due to marry and back into the ship dining room.

Toni Topaz was definitely not giving up hope, for both of their sakes.

**Author's Note:**

> (General Storyline and some contextual credits go to James Cameron)


End file.
